WOKC Local News – September 22, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Nobody lost their job. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. The school board funding a $116 million budget this year. Now positions were reduced, 689 to 630, but Superintendent Dylan Tedders says that doesn’t mean somebody was fired or laid off. Nobody was actually fired because we’re reducing funds. But we looked at retirements, did we need a refill? We looked at teacher allocations, you know, what are our student numbers? And if there was a vacancy, we evaluated whether we needed to open it up or whether we needed to hold onto it. Enrollment is expected to be down just five students to 6,258. The amount of local property taxes collected for schools will increase by 7.7%. A red light at Berman Road and 70 isn’t very likely in the near future. The FDOT refusing the county’s request for the signalized intersection. It’s a dangerous one. We had a 24-year-old man killed there recently in a collision with a truck. County Commissioner Terry Burroughs says the solution may be to bring the FDOT secretary here to explain their decision. Let’s have a logical conversation about life and death in an intersection that they haven’t quite figured out. They need a light and see what he has to say about that. And then maybe he can talk to the parents of that young man to say that the scenario B and scenario A didn’t really warrant a light. County Commissioner Frank DiCarlo says you really can’t reason with FDOT. It just sounds like what I would call confusion corner coming. And I think it was crazy. The county is also expressing concerns on 70 West and the city limits and part of the county where they want to put in concrete medians. Congressman Scott Franklin wants to get farmers and ranchers help quicker from the government during times of disasters like our freeze in February. He’s introduced the TEMP Act. And it actually would require USDA and the risk management services to come up with an insurance product that’s temperature sensitive that farmers could buy to protect them in the case of freezes like this. But right now the insurance that’s available out there doesn’t really fit them. Backyard chickens still being discussed in Stewart. The commission decided to delay a vote until October 12th. Resident Clay Scherer had no problems with chickens next door. This is a non-issue. And sometimes the best action of government is inaction or no action. And I would urge you to move on to bigger, more important things. There’s not a bunch of chickens running around the city causing issues. There’s not a lot of people running around, you know, knocking down your doors, asking for something. You’ll hear a lot of shotgun blasts if you live around Lake Oogachobee or near private ponds, marshes, and wetlands this week. It’s Florida’s early teal and wood duck season. For hunters, illegal shooting hours, one half hour before sunrise until sunset. The sheriff says they get a lot of calls from folks concerned about hearing these gunshots. Florida’s lawsuit with Starbucks has been settled. Attorney General James Uthmeyer announcing he’s negotiated a resolution. He sued the company for violating the state’s Civil Rights Act by setting goals based on race and sex. Under the agreement, Starbucks agrees to comply with any law and it will not participate in any organizations that require increasing the racial diversity of its board of directors. Starbucks will also pay the state a million dollars as reimbursement for legal fees. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).